Fire Starter
by yummy42
Summary: While on their rescue mission, what if Carley, Glenn, and Lee rescues a young girl before dealing with the suicidal lady? What happens when her past starts to resurface? Who will accept her for honesty, and who will never look at her the same? What if her past starts to tear the group apart? Who will survive the never-ending walkers with the death toll rising? Eventual CarLee! R
1. Someone Ordered Pizza?

_**Hey guys! **_

_**I'm currently new to the Walking Dead Game archive and this is my first Walking Dead story! This also happens to be my first OC centric story, too! So, I hope you guys enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed the game! **_

_**Only saying this one time...DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Walking Dead Game or the characters, if I did, Carley and Lee wouldn't have died!**_

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**Episode One: A New Day**

**Chapter One: _Somebody Ordered Pizza?_**

**_Kona's POV: _**

_"Mom? Dad? Jason? Please respond, PLEASE! Oh god, oh god, what did I do?!", I repeatedly cried out, while attempting to recover the unconscious trio from the accident. I sluggishly slid out of the totaled SUV, resulting in some cuts forming on my arms from the broken glass nearby. I examined myself and realized I had bruises covering my body. The car was in a critical condition, by being upside-down, I placed my hands on the top of my hands, but immediately felt wetness on the palms. I shakily drew my arms down and found fresh crimson-red liquid in the palm of my hand. _

_Shaking my head out of thought, ignoring my head injury, I sprinted back towards the car and bent down to get a view of the inside. I took off my scarf and wrapped it around my right-hand, then punched through the driver's window, shattering it. Eventually, I ended up on my stomach dragging out my family members, one at a time and laying them on the soft, lively grass to the side. I tried everything, well anything I could to try to wake up the non-responding figures, when I feel someone gently place a hand on my shoulder. _

_"Ko, it's not your fault."_

_I looked up and saw my sister, staring at me with concerned, yet calm mocha-brown orbs. Without saying a word, I shot up and hugged her tightly, while she rubs my back for reassurance. She stopped and tensed up when I finally said something, feeling extremely guilty. _

_"Yes...it was."_

I jerked myself to the left-side of the bed trying to get rid of the horrible memory, sure it went away, but a new one formed into mind.

_"So Mike, I see your lovely daughters have gotten used to living here, yes?" _

_Kelsey and I were in front of our dad's wooden-office door, placing our ears to the door, hearing their conversation. Kelsey for some reason doesn't like our new dad, she kept saying ever since Day one that there's something wrong with him. Apparently her Islander "Third-Eye" senses something up with our new dad, he seemed perfectly fine to me, he was really nice by buying us actual brand clothing and gave the both of us separate rooms with EPIC designs. Mine was supposed to remind me of my hometown, Hawaii, by having a tropical scenery with waves as my wallpaper and the carpet being sand-colored. Heck, I even had a nice fish tank in the walls with different tropical fish that I would see in the beaches of Hawaii. My bed was light-blue with bright-white pillows. _

_Kelsey's room was next to mine and was different. Back at Hawaii, while I liked to explore the beaches and the waters, Kelsey enjoyed hiking through the forests and jungles discovering the native animals and the scenery. Her room was mostly light and dark green with a brown bed representing the floor-level of a typical rainforest along with the light-brown carpet, with the green going from light to dark on her walls with the rainforest animals on it. Maybe I should've asked for a forest themed room, since she got a small rope-bridge that she got to sit on and climb while I just got a fish tank...My new dad's voice booming through the door slapped me back to reality._

_"From what I experienced, when I first adopted them, it was the best moment of my life!" _

_I lifted my ear from the door and tugged on Kelsey's sleeve, in your face! I was right!_

_"See Kels, he does appreciate us!" _

_"Really? You might want to look again." _

_My smirk slowly turned into a frown as I placed my ear back where it originally was and tuned back into the conversation. _

_"Of course it was the best moment of my life! I mean, who wouldn't be happy when adopting kids from a native land will help promote my campaign?!" _

_"It is true sir, after adopting those girls from Hawaii, your chance of winning improved to eighty-percent."_

_"Thank god for young, naïve islander girls." _

_Kelsey and I pulled from the door and looked at each other. When you think about it, the puzzle pieces fits right into place, the brand-name products, the design-themed rooms, going to social events in fancy clothes, we were practically being showed off like trophies. _

_God, I never felt so used in my life. _

At this point, I jerked to the right-side of the motel bed and opened my eyes. I couldn't handle going back to sleep and head into the next horrific memory, which was still fresh to mind. I still can't believe that I actually did that, I feel so horrible. I threw the bed sheets away from me as I sat up and looked at the clock, 12 A.M. Was I really asleep for _that _long? I hopped out of bed and changed into my hunting clothes, might as well go supply hunting when there isn't much walkers around nighttime.

I put on my black jeans and silky white-aeropostale hoodie, along with my black tennis shoes, since the temperature tends to drop when the sun goes down. I grabbed my night-vision goggles and placed it around my head. Thank god for Academy's hunting section that gave me these and a whole bunch of ammo and some fancy equipment. I picked up my neon-blue backpack, which used to be my school bag filled with textbooks and homework, now it's filled with a couple of handguns along with ammo packets and hopefully with food later on. Before I head out, I have to check and make sure there isn't any walkers here or nearby. One of the advantages of having a motel room on the top floor; which is the second floor, at the corner, is that I have easy access to water by having the rain gutter and sprout; meaning, not only will I have water sources close by, but I could climb onto the roof without a struggle, well after the first couple of times, that is.

Eventually, I got smart enough from using a ladder to the roof to cutting through the sprout and wear gloves to use the sliced openings as steps to the roof. I put on my black leather gloves; so I wouldn't get cut, and slid open the sliding door to the back balcony. I stepped outside and the first thing I hear is, a car? What? I placed the backpack on the patio table and walked towards the sprout. I placed one foot on the railing, hopped onto it with the other, and placed one hand on the closest opening to support myself. With my upper-body supported, I positioned my right foot on the opening four below from where my right-hand is and eventually situated my left-foot on the sprout, making me fully attached to the sprout. I placed one hand on a higher opening and moved my foot with it, as I keep continuing climbing in a flow, I'm at the roof before I even knew it.

Being on top of the red-orange tiled roof, I carefully and quietly slid down one tile at a time until I was able to sit comfortably on the roof. I slid down the goggles onto my eyes and stared into the forest for any signs of walkers, and I see none. I sighed in relief, looks like a calm night, tonight. I propped up my goggles to resting back on top of my head and glanced down below the roof to the parking lot for any signs of conflict I would have to handle. Sure, I see what seems to be a pizza delivery car, so where's the driver?

"Hello up there?"

Oh crap, that scared the heck out of me! At least it wasn't enough to make me fall of the roof, wait...why am I suddenly seeing the roof tiles moving past me? Great, I'm falling off the roof and most likely landing on the stranger, right?

Oh, how I hate my legs.

"INCOMING!", I announced as I slid completely off the roof and with the guy's eyes widen in awareness, he stretched out his arms and he ended up catching me. I looked up to analyze and study the stranger's face. He's definitely Korean for sure, with a bit of stubble, short-black hair covered with a blue and white pizza delivery hat, looks about in his early 20's, leather brown jacket, dark-orange shirt, along with jeans.

"Hey, you could actually pass off as my brother!"

He chuckled as he placed me on my feet on the concrete floor, "A thank you for saving my life, would be appreciated you know? The name's Glenn."

He stuck out his hand and I shook it, for some reason, I could tell he's the type of guy who's a bit laid-back and chill, despite what's happening, "I'm Kona. Nice to meet you, Glenn, it's nice to finally meet an actual human being for once, and not what's left of them."

"Er, thanks, I think? So, are you by yourself?"

"Yeah, I've been here for about two and a half weeks now. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I go out to hunt for food. Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, I would go hunting for more ammo and supplies to support my defense. Saturdays are my free-days where I would go onto the roof every now and then for watch and then relax in the room."

"Sounds like you've planned this out pretty well, that's smart. Don't tell Lilly this, but I think you're better in strategy-wise in survival, even though you weren't part of the Air Force."

"Thanks though, who's Lily?"

"She's apparently the leader of the group who's kinda bossy at times."

Leader? Group? Hmm, Kelsey did tell me to join groups if I can, groups tend to work better together and would help with survival, especially if you're one of the youngest ones, they'll be looking out for you the most. Might as well take chances, right? Even though this Lily person may sound like someone who's a control-freak and somebody I wouldn't like, I'm already friends with Glenn, so this could actually work out, at least till I'm ready to leave to Savannah. Apparently Glenn read my mind, since the next thing he said was...

"Hey, since you're young and alone, why not join the group? We've recently rescued about five people and two of them are kids, it's survivor for survivor, right?"

I gave my answer by hugging him, "Thanks Glenn, it gets lonely when you don't see people for awhile, you know?"

He hugged me back and said, "No problem, now go grab whatever things you have and we'll leave."

"I'll be right ba-", I then got interrupted by the sound of crying? How is that even possible? I've never seen any actual human beings for about two weeks! Glenn let go of me and told me to go back into the room to start packing, while he goes check out the commotion, unfortunately I may have forgot to unlock the door and I can't climb back onto the roof so easily. So, Glenn had to give me a boost up to the roof and I successfully slid back into my room.

After repacking most of my supplies, I hear a loud bang or crash happening outside. I picked up a handgun laying on my bed and started heading towards the door, I turned the lock the other way and placed my left-hand on the golden doorknob as I held the gun in my right, in its firing position. As I started twisting the knob, I hear a knock.

Thinking it was Glenn, I immediately opened it. Boy, was I wrong in so many ways.

I held up the handgun and pointed it directly at them, index finger placed on the trigger.

"You're not Glenn."

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**And, that ends Episode One, Chapter One, Part One of Fire Starter! **

**-I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter! **

**-I hope that my OC isn't a Mary Sue, because if she is, I will try to make her imperfect...and hopefully I won't make the characters go OOC as much. **

**-Aside from that, there's a Glenn/Kona brotherly-sisterly relationship happening during this chapter and episode! There's still tons of questions being asked just from this chapter! **

*** Who's at the door? **

*** What exactly happened during Kona's past? **

*** What happened to her sister?**

**-Stay tuned for part two! Where we get to see our favorite and anti-favorite characters appear! If you know what I mean...**

**-A MAJOR hint for the first question is...remember the scene where you had to quietly take out zombies at the motel. **

**-The answer will be revealed in Part Two and it may or may not surprise you!**

**-So, review, favorite, and follow! **

**Peace!~Yummy42**

**P.S-And no, the title does NOT have anything to do with Kona's past! She hasn't started any fires, yet...maybe, I don't know! Anyways, it was inspired by Demi Lovato's Fire Starter, since I'm basing my OC on the lyrics! And, for some reason the song seems to fit Lee?**


	2. Here We Go Again

**I hope you enjoy this! Two updates in two days, say what?**

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**Episode One: A New Day**

**Chapter Two: Here We Go Again**

_**Carley's POV: **_

Lee and I are walking towards the Travelier Motel on a little rescue mission, since apparently Glenn is trapped by walkers while retrieving some gasoline here. As soon as we set one foot on the lot, Lee with alerted eyes warned, "Shit! Get down!"

I turned around and the first thing I see is a bald lifeless walker wearing a typical high-school jacket with blue and white, rising from the ground.

We both ducked and sat against the brick-wall of the short wall, where we sighed in relief and I rested my handgun in my left-hand. Hearing it walking away, Lee and I peaked over the wall. I noticed one of the olive-green doors to the ice machine moving and opening a bit, "Did you see that?"

"Sure did."

At this point, we were both standing up, with my gun in the firing position as I aimed it towards the cooler, both hands placed on the gun, my index finger resting on the trigger.

"Be ready to shoot." Lee softly commanded, which I nodded in return. After a couple of seconds, the door opens out wide, revealing Glenn. I lowered my weapon as Glee hops out of the green cooler and walks towards us.

"GUYS! Oh man, I'm glad you're here."

In surprise, I say, "Jesus Glenn." as he jumps over the wall we're behind and joins us in crouching down, almost reaching the floor.

"All right, that wasn't so hard." Lee says.

"Can we get out of here before any of those things notice us?" I impatiently asked, wanting to leave.

"Not yet. There's a survivor up there and another one over there." Glenn says while pointing to the upper right then the left. I looked up to the upper right to see two walkers trying to knock down the wooden door that's boarded up with a bunch of wood on it, by chomping on it. We've already wasted enough time, so I said, "No way, we gotta go. NOW."

"LISTEN. I was out here looking for gas. While I came into the parking lot, I looked onto the roof to see a young girl looking into the forest with goggles, I climbed up the stairs and called out to her. She fell and I caught her, then we started talking. And then, up there in the corner room, I heard crying coming from the inside." Glenn explained.

"Who is it?" Lee questioned.

"Before I left to check, I helped Kona back onto the roof. I went over to where it was coming from and found out it was a girl. We talked and she got frightened. I was trying to get in to help her and she started yelling and saying I was bitten. I tried to convince her I wasn't and that's when all of these guys came out of the forest. A couple almost got me and I ended up hiding in the ice machine." Glenn answered in a whisper.

"Lucky you; now let's go!" I said with my patience starting to run low.

"We can't just leave her." Glenn defended.

"Damn right we can't." Lee added.

"You guys are suicidal. Over a girl!" I said.

"It's not over one, but two girls Carley. One of them happens to be no younger than fourteen and alone! I'm saving them, with or without you." Glenn responded.

"Think about if it was you." Lee defended Glenn. I shook my head and defeated by two-to-one, I gave up, "Fine. Let's go save Glenn's damsels in distress."

"Ok, this is the plan. We don't know how hard it's going to be to get them out of those rooms." Lee planned out.

"Yeah, it's boarded up." Glenn pointed with his head to the upper-right. Lee continued with his plan, "So we have to kill every one of them in here." I cocked my gun, only to have Lee say, "QUIETLY. Noise attracts these things. Now let's have a look around."

Glenn and Lee peeked over the wall, only to see a walker chomping down what seems to be half a corpse? Gross. I hear Glenn's voice, "Oh man. She's eating something. So we got that one right there, close."

Lee looks to the right and sees a rusty, red pick-up truck, "We can hide by that pickup." He started silently, quickly walked over there while his back was half bent down. As soon as he reaches there and crouches down, we follow his lead and meet him there. Lee stands up by the car window and peeks in, "I think I found a pretty damn good way to stop these guys quietly."

"Now we just have to get it quietly." Glenn responds as I lay back against the cream-colored, column by the truck, gun in my hand as always. Lee tried to break the window using his elbow, only hurting himself and earning a word from Glenn, "Hey man, that drew some attention. Be careful."

Apparently Lee remembered something and said, "You guys stay here, I need to get something by the wall." He went over to the wall, crouched down and snatched something from the left-side of the wall. He comes back to us, with a pillow.

"Good luck smothering them to death..." I said as soon as the pillow came into the picture, and Lee answers, "That's not really what I have in mind."

He turns to me and says, "Get out your gun."

"But the noise."

"Just follow my lead; stay right behind me." Lee said right before he goes in front of the walker sitting in front of a car in front of the pickup truck, facing us. Lee covers its face with the white-pillow and I took out my gun. I placed it close to the pillow and fired it. Some blood came out from the head as the body fell to the hard-ground. Glenn peeks his head around the corner of the car, "That was sick!"

Lee stands up to the car and opens the door, he then took the brakes off, making it able to roll, along with snatching a blue, sparky thing.

"It's uh, a, sparky thing." Lee said, not knowing what it was, so Glenn corrected him, "Sparkplug. You should hold onto that, could come in handy."

Lee started pushing the car by the side and made it roll down the small hill, causing it to immobilize the zombie near the fire-axe, onto the wall, getting a comment from an excited Glenn, "That was awesome!"

We went back behind the pickup truck to figure out how to retrieve the pick from inside the truck. Lee was about to throw the sparkplug before Glenn interrupts him, "Wait. Let me see the sparkplug." Lee gives it to him as he continues, "The porcelain inside these things turns car windows to tissue paper." He throws it on the ground and steps on it, picks up the porcelain and hands it to Lee. Huh, you learn something new everyday. Lee throws the porcelain at the car window and it breaks easily and quietly, not drawing attention from the walkers. He reaches in and grabs the pick with a dark-blue handle at the end.

"That could scramble a brain pretty good." Glenn complimented.

"That's exactly what I was thinking." Lee answers. We then head back to the brick-wall and crouched down behind it. Glenn turns to me and say, "Now we have our weapon, any chance you could rescue Kona?"

"And, you can't, why?"

"You have a better chance with that gun of yours compared to my plank of wood." Glenn said with a shrug.

"Fine. Where is she again?"

"Top floor, on the left-corner, might wanna knock first."

"And attract the walkers? Hell, to the no." I protested.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of them before you even get up there." Lee decided to butt into our debate. I nodded as I leave the guys as they left to another pickup to take out the walker near it. I walked by the car Lee pushed into a walker and found the stairs on the right-side, er, might not walk up those. I turned and continued walking straight as I reach the stairway of the left-side of the motel. I craned my head to only see Glenn and Lee taking out two walkers with Glenn's plank board and Lee's recently found pick. I climbed my way up the metal stairway and reached the second level. I crouched down as I stepped onto the top step to look over at the walkers trying to break into the far-right's door. I sighed and stood back up, walked towards the left-corner's door and knocked on it, while keeping my gun up in position in case the walkers heard it.

I was greeted by not only a young girl, but a young girl pointing her handgun at me, along with saying a so-called greeting.

"You're not Glenn."

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_**Still Carley's POV: **_

"Not even close. Now, can you please lower your gun?" I attempted to reason as I placed my hands in the air in surrender with my gun still in my hand. She shook her head with her gun still aimed in my face. I took the time to study her appearance, her face and tan-skin is screaming islander, maybe Hawaii islander, raven-black hair with coffee-brown streaks going just below her shoulder-blades, dark-brown eyes, fit, wearing a bright-white hoodie with 'Aeropostale' spread across her chest, black jeans, and black tennis shoes. She couldn't possibly look or be any younger than fourteen, I suppose. Though, it's pretty impressive being here this whole time at that age, alone.

"Who are you?" Her voice snapped me out of thought.

"I'm Carley. Your name is Kona, right?" I introduced myself as she nods to answer my question, yet she keeps the aim on me with suspicious eyes.

"Yeah, how did you know that? You've been stalking me?" She questioned, more like interrogated really. I shook my head side to side frantically, answering her second question, and I answer her first, "No, I haven't been stalking you, even though I was a news reporter. Anyways, I'm here with a friend of mine from our group to come here and rescue Glenn."

As soon as she heard Glenn's name, she lowered her gun and motioned to 'come in' by using her head, while I got to finally relax my arms by bringing it down to my sides and placed my gun in the sheath. I walked into her room and silently closed the door and locked it. Taking in the surrounding, the room was average-sized for a motel room with two beds over at the left-side, a TV standing on a hard-wooden drawer on the right, next to a mini fridge with a microwave on top. The wall was eggshell-white while the carpet was dark-brown. I didn't notice till now that Kona was walking back towards the back balcony and picked up what seemed to be a neon-blue schoolbag? She walked back inside, placed it on the closest bed and started packing, while packing she decided to make conversation.

"So, you're in Glenn's group?"

"Yeah, and trust me, I'm not here to hurt you, we're just here to rescue you and another girl."

"Thanks, I guess."

"So Kona, being up here by yourself this whole time is pretty impressive, exactly how old are you?"

"Just turned fourteen last month."

"Any siblings?" I asked. Looks like I hit a nerve there, since she stopped packing for a second and just zipped it up, ignoring my question. Feeling the awkwardness and tension in the air I awkwardly say, "I'll just wait outside for you, alright?" As soon as I walked towards the door and opened it, Kona glances up and her eyes widen. She grabs her gun and presses the trigger. I closed my eyes, thinking she shot me, ready to feel the impact of the bullet. I opened my eyes and scanned my body, no sign of blood anywhere.

Confused, I turn around and glance down, noticing something on the ground, inches away from me...was a walker.

* * *

_**Kona's POV: **_

I looked down at the fallen walker, eventually my graze moved up to Carley's eyes which showed surprise and amusement. When I first saw her at my door, not only did I point my gun at her, but I also took in her appearance, Caucasian-American for sure, Autumn-brown hair that reaches her shoulders, hazel-eyes, white-blouse top, dark-blue knee length skirt, and high heels. Honestly, she reminds me as a flight attendant. I looked at her and smirked, "Well look who rescues the rescuer."

"Real funny. Though, that was some impressing reflexes you have there, but how come I didn't hear the gun go off?"

I tapped the top of the only black object on the gun, "Silencer. You think people would've tried looking for these first, it helps out a bunch when it doesn't make any noise to attract walkers nearby when you shoot." I placed the gun back into my sheath on my belt and walked over to the bed to pick up my fully stuffed backpack filled with ammo, snacks, and clothes.

"You ready to go?"

I nodded my head as I walked towards the door as Carley closes it behind us. I looked over at the right with the corner of my eye and see an African-American man, dark-brown eyes, a short black-beard around his mouth with stubble on the side, and short-black hair with a blue-collared shirt and green khakis taking out walkers with a fire axe while Glenn is behind him. After the guy with the axe takes out the last walker by slashing it in the back, we walked over to them. I roll my hoodie sleeves up, revealing my tan arms, and placed my bag on the ground, causing a thud. Glenn looks down at me and bends down to give me a quick hug, "Hey Kona, glad to see you're alright. I see that you and Carley met."

I let go of him and look back at Carley, "Um, you could say that."

He was about to respond, but the guy with the axe interrupts him by pounding on the door and saying, "Hello in there? We're here to help." In return he gets, "Please, just go away!"

Clearly the girl doesn't want to get rescued for some reason, which is crazy, so Carley agrees by saying, "Let's go, guys."

Which the guy says, "In a minute." as he continues attempting to persuade the girl behind the door, "If you open up. we can take you somewhere safer. We've got a group in town."

She cries out in return, "No, no, no! Please!"

Glenn thinks something was happening, "She's in trouble!" The axe guy backs away from the door and announces, "Miss! We're coming in!"

He ends up breaking the board of wood above the door-knob and starts trying to kick in the door, when the girl yells, "Stop, just stop. I'm coming out." she unlocks the door and trembles out of the room. From her looks, she's very pale, short-brown hair, olive-green eyes, really skinny with a light-purple V-neck and dark-green skirt. Axe man noticed her injuries and say, "You're hurt." with Carley adding in, "Oh, god."

She weakly stammers out, "I...I said stay away."

Glenn wanting to help says, "We need to get you help."

In response, he gets, "It's too late for that."

Carley examines her arm closer and says, "Guys, she's been bitten."

I didn't realize it until my eyes grazed down to her left-arm. Oh god...she _was_ bitten.

Both of the guys said at the same time, "WHAT?!" obviously from shock.

"I told you. I said go away, I'm bit. But you wouldn't just leave." she defended. Axe man tried to assure her and reason, "Let's calm down. You could be fine."

"I won't be fine. My boyfriend was bitten. You get sick and you die and you come back and kill anything you can find." she admitted. Earning a disbelieved and broken-hearted Glenn in the progress, "You have a boyfriend?"

Carley with a serious voice say, "GLENN."

Ignoring what he said, the girl continued, "I don't want that. It's not Christian. Please, just leave me-just go." not wanting to give up, axe man says, "Come with us and we'll find you some help." I noticed her turning her head towards Carley's gun, which was hanging in her hand.

"You have a gun."

In response, Carley says, "So?"

The girl asks, "Can I borrow it?"

Carley questions, "What do you mean 'borrow'?" her answer wasn't really that surprising, "Give it to me. I can just, you know, end this and then-then there's no problem."

Axe man responds with, "Woah, woah, woah." while the girl pleads, "PLEASE. I don't want to be one of them. They're...they're...satanic"

He shakes his head and protests against her, "We can't let you do that to yourself." she yells back, "Then do it for me!"

With not much time left, Carley says, "We need to get going."

She pleads one last time, "Give it to me, PLEASE!" Glenn going against her says, "This is crazy!"

Not wanting any trouble, Carley politely orders, "Please, step back."

She starts walking towards Carley, making us step back towards the black-metal railing, while she says, "It's just two seconds, just one bullet, and I can be with my family, and it'll be fine." axe man gently says, "Miss..."

Carley orders more forcefully now, "Back up!" at this point, she lunges at her while saying, "PLEASE!"

They started a power struggle for the gun while axe man and Glenn joins in to retrieve it from her. With all of our weight onto the railing and struggling against it...isn't it about to...

**_CRACK_**

The railing breaks and all of us go diving onto the concrete-ground below. After feeling the impact of the ground, it wasn't until I attempted to sit up I feel a sharp pain go through my body coming from my side. Wincing in pain, I carefully lift up my hoodie and shirt just to where it reveals a big circular egg-plant purple bruise covering my right-hip. I must've landed on my gun, good thing I always remember to put it on safety first. I successfully sat up, despite how much agonizing of a pain it was from the bruise and my newly formed cut on my right-forearm. The cut wasn't deep, but it did stretch from the back of my wrist to near my elbow. Not wanting to see the bright-red liquid ooze out of me, I cover my arms by rolling down my sleeves. I managed to barely stand up by kneeling on my left-leg and spring up, placing me on my two feet.

I looked in front of me and noticed that Carley was looking for her gun, as we look up a bit, we realized that the girl got a hold on the gun in her right-hand, and is taking steps backwards, our eyes widen.

Axe man tried to talk her out of it, "Whoa, take it easy. We just want to help."

She raised the gun and pointed it to the side of her head, index finger on the trigger, "You can't." her hand starts to shake, causing the gun to wiggle and her eyes starts to brim the tears as axe man tries to calm her, "Miss, just relax now..." he shook his head and continued, "...you need to think this though..." he keeps trying to assure her, "...we'll find you a doctor, it'll be ok, let's all just..."

Knowing what's happening in the next couple of seconds, he yells as he sprints towards the girl, "Nonono no, NO!"

**_BANG_**

Crimson-red blood came out of the left-side of her head, splattering the ground beneath her with red droplets. Her body soon after, collapsed to the concrete, rendering her...motionless.

We all stood up and went over to her body with the feeling of guilt and shock. God, I've heard of people committing suicide by shooting themselves, but I've never actually witnessed it first-hand like this, except now. Glenn bends down and picks up the weapon from her, looking at the body again, he covers his mouth and stood back up to only throw-up. As if walkers weren't already gross enough...

Carley says something that's most likely going through everyone's mind, "Let's get out of here."

Knowing that the noise was loud, we hear walkers approaching and axe man's word of the day is, "Shit." along with Glenn warning us, "Here they come!"

We started running past and barely dodging the walkers as we reached Glenn's pizza delivery car as he yells, "Get in!"

Glenn was driving, axe man was in the passenger seat, Carley was behind Glenn, while I was behind axe man. It wasn't till seconds later Glenn started the car and drove the heck out of there. Oh crap, I knew I forgot something!

"What about my backpack?" I suddenly remembered leaving it on the ground...on the top floor...by the railing...where we fell.

"We could always come back, or would you rather fight walkers for it?" Carley answered my question with another question. Man, I had _everything _in there, my weapons, ammo, clothes, and most importantly...MY FOOD! Otherwise from my question, the ride was pretty much filled with silence, until axe man decided to break it. He used the driver's mirror between him and Glenn to look at me and say, "Sorry for the late introduction, but the name's Lee."

"It's alright, my name is Kon-ahhhh!" I managed to say before wincing in pain from my bruise by leaning on the car door. Everybody's heads pop-out as they heard me, while Glenn stops the car and Carley scoots closer to me with a concerned face, "Kona, are you okay?"

"Yeah, totally, I'm just having random muscle-spasm attacks, that's all." I managed to lie. Glenn and Lee bought it, since Glenn started up the car again and they had their own little conversation, as for Carley, she doesn't look as convinced, "Lift your hoodie."

"Why?" I tried to act dumb, but she risen an eyebrow while giving me one of those I-know-you're-lying looks, so I sighed in defeat and turned right-side towards her.

_**Click**_

The next thing I knew, I see the car bright-white light on. Dang, what's Carley doing, playing doctor? I felt Carley's small-petite hands touching my side, making me slightly wince. She lifted my hoodie and shirt a little bit, so I feel the cold-air blow onto my exposed skin. I heard a gasp escape from Carley's lips as I looked down at the injury itself, what used to be tan and smooth, turned dark-purple and swollen, "What happened Kona?"

"When we fell from the railing, I must've landed on my gun, causing it to jab into my side when I made impact with the ground."

"The drugstore probably has some painkillers for that bruise of yours. Here, how about for now, you just sleep it off by laying on your left-side?" Carley suggested and pats her lap. Might as well, since it's kinda painful to be sitting up compared to laying down. She switches off the car light.

I switch sides and lay my head on Carley's right-thigh, it's weird, in a way, she reminds me of...

In a matter of minutes, I managed to drift off to sleep land before even finishing my thoughts.

* * *

**_Kona's POV: At The Drugstore_**

My eyes opened from the feeling of someone shaking me? I sat up, just now remembering my bruise, I felt a thousand knives stab through my side and hissed in pain. I look out of the car-door to see it open with Carley looking at me with worried eyes. She stuck out a hand to help me out of the car, which I gladly accepted as she pulls me off the seat, out the car.

As we started walking towards the drugstore with Carley walking at my pace with her gun out, I realized we were in an alley. I shuddered in thought, remembering some things, _too many _things happen in alleys. I see Glenn and Lee in a distance entering a building, must be the drugstore and we're getting in by the back exit. After many steps, we've finally reached the door and we stepped inside.

In the backroom, it's pretty dull, except for the blood on the floor by a sleeping bag? That spells safety, clearly...

Once we exit the backroom and step into the actual drugstore, I hear an unknown voice, I think it's mustache guy, "Is everyone alright?" then I look over to see Lee with Glenn standing behind him answer, "Yeah. We had some close calls but Glenn is fine, and...well, yeah...we're ok."

Without looking up, Glenn says, "I've got a few cans of gas for your pickup in the trunk of my car." he gets a deep, "Good to hear it." from mustache guy.

After that short conversation, apparently I made _some _kind of noise, since I feel all fourteen eyeballs on me. Feeling the awkwardness with me, Carley suggests something, "Why don't you go sit on one of the black-spinning stools, while I get some painkillers for your bruise?"

I answered with one swift nod and went over to the stools. Despite the pain coursing through my veins and probably a weird face, I managed to lift myself onto one of the stools, where a little girl, no younger than nine, I presume, light-hazel brown eyes, short-brown curly hair, light-brown skinned, with a white hat with 'D' on it, a white-strapless sundress, comes over to me.

"Lee told me to come over here to talk to you." the little girl quietly says.

"Well, you don't _have _to talk to me, just because someone told you to, you know."

"Actually, I just said that as an excuse to talk to you, I kinda got bored with Duck's talking 24/7."

"Ha-ha thanks, so what's your name?" at this point, she climbs onto the stool to the right of mine and sat there, "I'm Clementine. What's yours?"

"That's a very original name, it's the first I've heard of it, and I'm Kona."

"Thanks. And, your name is very pretty" Clementine compliments, after this, we started to talk and got into various and super-random topics. We went from talking about the walkers to tales of what happened in first grade.

Clementine and I appear to have this weird connection where we could talk about and do pretty much anything, she kinda reminds me of my little "sister" from Hawaii, hmmm, maybe this is a sign.

* * *

**Ten Minutes Later: **

"And, BOOM! That's the end of our official handshake right there!" I said as Clementine and I finished officiating as secret handshake. We started laughing, until I feel the sharp pain in my side...again.

I placed my hand onto my side, trying to stop the pain, when in reality, it made it worse. I winced in pain, while feeling extremely guilty, since I think I scared and worried Clementine a bit from my facial expression of pain, "Are you hurt?"

"Yeah, but it's nothing really, just a bruise on my side." Clementine was about to say something when a shout of Lily interrupted her, "GET THAT GIRL OUT OF THIS GROUP, RIGHT NOW! WE'VE ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH!"

While Clem and I were talking, she told me the names of everyone in the group, Lily was obviously the loud one with the bossy and control-freakish attitude that all somehow fit in a leather jacket and a pair black pants. Larry, the old guy having a heart attack or some medical condition, sitting on the floor right now, happens to be Lily's dad, kinda figured that out when he told me to go back to Asia. Mustache guy actually has a name, which is Kenny, his wife Katjaa, and his son Kenny Jr. often-called Duck, for some reason. Doug is your typical AV nerd, which his skills somehow manage to help survive.

Clem takes me out of my thought bubble when she gets up and leaves her stool, making me curious of her whereabouts, "Hey Clem, where are you going?" she points at Lily from a distance, who's walking towards me with anger and determination mixed on her face.

Well speak of the devil.

When she was close enough to me, she yanks me off the side, ahhhh feeling the sharp pain, again! Yay, Super Carley to the rescue, since apparently she saw the whole yank and is coming towards us, if possible, her ears are probably sending out hot steam, "Get your man-hands off of Kona!"

"She was clearly bitten!" she yanks my arm again, enough to show Carley my right-arm, and continues, "Look! Her arm is bleeding, clearly she was bitten!"

I am not bleeding! I look down at my right-arm, oh...Well, I didn't think the cut would've actually bled through! Though, I know for sure I wasn't bitten! Maybe by mosquitos during the summer, but not by a walker!

All Carley did was groan and said...

"Here we go again."

* * *

**And, that ends part 2 of chapter one!**

**-I hope you enjoyed it!**

**-So, our favorite and favorite anti-favorites made an appear in this chapter! Haha oxymoron moment there...**

**-Next chapter will the action-packed one for sure! Cause we all know what happens next...**

**-So, revealed by this chapter, there's going to be a Carley/Kona mother-daughter or sister-like relationship, Clementine/Kona friendship, Kona/Lee friendship, Kona/Larry & Kona/Lily hateship, we'll get into detail for the reson being of hate in later chapters...**

**-I hope you guys get the here we go again part, because someone is thinking Kona is bitten from the show of injuries, just as Larry accused Duck earlier.**

**-Nothing else to say, except for Review, Favorite, and Follow! **

**Peace!~Yummy42**


	3. Quick Decisions

**Thanks for all of the kind favorites, follows, and reviews! I really appreciate it!**

**I've been wanting to update, but something always come up whenever I'm on Fanfiction! **

**Anywho, here's chapter three, so I hope you guys enjoy it! A lot of action happening in this chapter!**

* * *

_**Previously on Fire Starter: **_

_When she was close enough to me, she yanks me off the side, ahhhh feeling the sharp pain, again! Yay, Super Carley to the rescue, since apparently she saw the whole yank and is coming towards us, if possible, her ears are probably sending out hot steam, "Get your man-hands off of Kona!"_

_"She was clearly bitten!" she yanks my arm again, enough to show Carley my right-arm, and continues, "Look! Her arm is bleeding, clearly she was bitten!"_

_I am not bleeding! I look down at my right-arm, oh...Well, I didn't think the cut would've actually bled through! Though, I know for sure I wasn't bitten! Maybe by mosquitos during the summer, but not by a walker!_

_All Carley did was groan and said..._

_"Here we go again."_

* * *

**_Episode One: A New Day_**

_**Chapter Three: Quick Decisions **_

**Kona's POV: In The Drugstore**

"If you weren't bitten, then how can someone get an injury like that?" Lilly questioned, referring to the revealing slash on my right-forearm.

"Well, long story short, clearly, I wasn't meant to be a stunt double." I managed to lie. I mean, what was I supposed to say? That I fell off a balcony from trying to prevent a sucide? Still, that scene was still fresh to mind, seeing people lose hope like that and find taking themselves out as the only solution? If people had the will to end it, right then and there, then they have the will to find another solution or really, anything.

Lilly just huffed and said, "Whatever, are you POSITIVE that you weren't bitten, because the last thing we need is walker ripping my insides out in the middle of the night."

"That, was pretty vivid prediction, and I'm one-hundred sure I wasn't bitten or infected in any possible way." I answered confidentially, resulting in Lilly turning around and walking back to her dad, who's sitting back against the back-corner's wall, tending to his condition. With Lilly away, Carley turns to me, facing me and takes a glance to my still little bit oozing bloodied arm.

"For now that is, if we don't clean this wound up, it's going to get infected." Carley finally says after analyzing it and leads me off the chair. Finally processing what she just said, "Wait a sec, _we?_"

"Yes, _we _are going to find some rubbing alcohol and clean this-" she holds up my arm to eye-level as she continues," and hopefully find something to cover it. I mean, we _are _in a drugstore slash pharmacy, aren't we?"

"Nah, we're clearly in Starbucks while the things outside happen to be college students who haven't had their morning drink, yet." I matched Carley's sarcasm. She rolled her eyes as her orbs caught sight of the Medicine sign on one of shelves and went over to it. She grabbed a couple of items and walked back to me, when she got closer, I realized what the items in her hands were, rubbing alcohol, bandages, cotton balls, and a manila-cloth wrap with a cloth pin in it. She places the items on top of the counter as I lay my wounded arm on the counter as well, making the cut face upward, towards the light above us.

She opens up the bottle of alcohol, puts a cotton-ball on the opening of the bottle, and tilts the bottle so the liquid rushes down to the cotton-ball. Before it starts to drip, she turns the alcohol right-side up and places it back onto the counter with the other medical supplies. With the soaked cotton-ball in hand, she starts inching closer to my arm, making my muscles stiffen, noticing this, Carley stops and looks up to me with a 'Are-you-serious?' look, "Relax, this isn't going to hurt."

"Yeah, that's what the doctor said before he practically stabbed my arm with a giant needle." and people wondered why I hated going to the doctor and hospitals.

Carley gives me a look of comfort, so I sighed in defeat and placed my trust in her by relaxing my triceps, allowing her to place the soggy ball on my exposed tan-skin. To pass the time and break the silence, Carley decided to speak, "So, what brings you to Macon?"

"My dad passed away in the hospital, so my sister and I flew from Hawaii, we were here for his final moments."

"Oh god, I'm sorry, I had no idea, you have my condolences."

"Thanks, he died from injuries from some kind of fight, didn't think he was the type to do so, anyways, what about you?"

"I'm a news reporter for WABE over at Atlanta, came here to cover the Cherry Blossom Festival, and that was when all of _this _happened."

I chuckled a bit and responded, "Really? I thought you were a flight attendant!"

"What makes you think I look like a damn flight attendant, exactly?" she looks down at her clothes, and mutters something I couldn't hear, proving my statement.

"It's alright Carley, though I would like to say that I like my peanuts roasted by the way!", I said while laughing, resulting in Carley nudging my shoulder. She shook her head as she continues sliding the cotton-ball across my fore-arm, cleaning it and making my whole right-arm burn like the Sun! Suddenly, my grip to the counter get tighter as I hurriedly blew cold air onto the anxiously burning arm. Carley starts placing bandages onto my arm as she reassures me, "At least we know for sure it's cleaned and won't get infected."

She then starts to wrap the manila-cloth around my whole fore-arm, covering up the bandages, along with any evidence of my wound. After finishing wrapping up my arm like a mummy, she seals it with the cloth pin, making sure that it doesn't unwrap. Glazing my left arm across my right, I started to feel the fabric of the cloth, it felt silky, as if I was just wearing it for show.

Breaking the silence like glass, I say, "Come to think of it, shouldn't Katjaa; A.K.A the vet, be the one doing this?"

"What, you don't trust _me?"_ Carley playfully asked while placing a hand on her heart, acting like she was hurt.

"Well, you _did _have some issues with a radio that didn't even have any batteries and the second time, you placed them in backwards, kinda makes someone skeptical of you using medical supplies that has sharp ends." I answered, causing her scoff, "Who told you about that?"

It was my turn to scoff, "No one, it was just a lucky guess."

Ignoring my remark, she then gave me an explanation to my previous question, "Before you came in, we rescued Lee's group out there and Duck almost got bitten, he's still a bit shell-shocked."

"Well, I guess that makes sense." I said while rolling up my right-sleeve, completely covering the cloth wrapped around my arm. Carley was about to say something when Doug and Lee suddenly burst into the room from being out in the front with Doug holding the front door with his back, and Lee has a look of distraught across his face? They say something to each other, that I couldn't catch as Lee walks away afterwards and heads toward Lilly, who's kneeling next to her dad.

He takes out an object from his pockets which revealed to be, "I've got the keys."

"Great, god you're amazing. Now let's get inside." Lily says as she rose to her two feet, causing me to scoff.

The two of them then walked towards the backroom, till they were out of eye-sight. I started to actually take in the detail of the store as Carley breaks my concentration by muttering, "Kiss ass." I turn my attention back to the reporter, "What was that?"

She opened her mouth to say something, but the sound of a blaring alarm from the pharmacy interrupted her.

* * *

With a sound that loud, wouldn't that attract...Lee and Lily came sprinting back into the store. While Lily heads over to her dad and hands him his heart medicine, Lee goes to Clementine near the front. Carley runs over to her purse and pulls out her Glock 17 handgun, while reloading it with ammo. Copying Carley, I pull out my only weapon on me, my silver handgun with the raven-black silencer on top from the sheath of my belt. Although seconds later, I decided to take off the silencer and place it back into my hoodie's only pocket. I mean, it's doesn't really matter how loud my gun goes off, at the moment.

With everybody alerted and on their toes, Kenny starts giving out commands, "I'm going to get my truck out back!" he continues shouting out commands, while I continued ignoring them until I heard, "Doug, Carley, and Lee, you guys make sure our defenses stay up til then."

At this point, suddenly remembering that I kept some emergency ammo in my hoodie pocket, I reached into the pocket and snatched the extra ammo packet. Noticing me reloading my gun, Carley quickly runs back to me, glancing down to where my wounds were and asks, "Are you sure you're well enough?"

Hitting the bottom of the packet successfully into the gun, I answered, "I surfed in a competition with a broken arm, I'm pretty sure I can handle it." with one swift assured nod, Carley responds, "Alright. But, if something happens, I want you to get the hell out of here."

After a simple 'Alright', she ran up to the front door with Doug and Lee and helped hold the door by putting her arms on the door and pushed it. With my gun resting in the palm of my right hand, despite the bruise on my side, I ran up to where Clementine was and started shooting Walkers through the already busted windows.

_**BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG**_

_**THUD**_

Four down, who knows how many more to go.

While shooting what's left of actual, living people, I hear Doug's voice up in the front, despite the door loudly banging from the unwanted visitors, "Hey, Lee...if we don't make it through this, you should that...I think you're a great guy."

"We'll make it through this!" Lee responded, back towards the door. Then I hear Carley's voice up next, "Doug, if we don't make it through this, you should know-"

_**THUD**_

One powerful pushed from the walkers' side creaked the door open a little bit, making me refocus in the current life or death situation. I shook my head and raise my gun towards the front door where I notice a walker's face trying to take a bite of Lee, "Lee, move your head to the left!"

Doing what I said, Lee cocks his head to the left towards Doug, while I take a shot straight towards the center.

_**BANG**_

With the bullet glazing above Lee's shoulder, it makes impact in between the pupil-less thing, causing it to fall onto the concrete and allowing Lee to shove the doors closed again.

"Thanks!" Lee shouts over the groans of walkers, which in respond he gets, "No problem!"

Doug, continuing on with Carley and his attempt at a conversation asks, "I should know what?" apparently forgetting what she was about to say, Carley answers a question with another question, "Huh?!"

"You said I should know-" Doug tried to help Carley remember as I decided to end this conversation that's clearly going nowhere, "Hey guys, maybe if we put the obliviousness to the side, and focus on trying not to get killed would be nice!"

As if on cue, the wooden bookshelf next to Doug, covering the window falls over, granting permission for walkers to climb through the open window. Turning my attention to our weak spot, I raise my gun while Carley gets off the door and we both managed to say, "On it." at the same time before blowing the brains out of the flesh-munchers.

"Wha...? Oh, shit!" Carley shouts as an un-expected walker closes in on Doug and manages to shoot behind his back, right into the walker's face. Carley leaves us to tend to the other side of the window behind the bookshelf with walkers starting to pile in while I backed up towards to the counter and continued shooting the walkers through the already exposed window by Doug. During my little shoot-out, I hear Lee asking Clementine to find something to hold between the door handles. Hearing one of the other window's glass break, commanded by Lee, Doug gets off the front door and dashes to the other broken window. Soon enough, I see the hazel-eyed girl return with, what seems to be a light-brown cane with a dark-brown handle and hands it to Lee who places it dead-center of the door handles, holding the doors shut.

As I shot down the last walker near my window, I press the trigger to only see no bullets leaving the weapon, meaning...I'm out.

"Crap! Guys I'm out!" and of course with my luck, Carley says a similar thing, "SHIT! I'M OUT! I'M OUT!"

"KONA! LEE! Help! Ammo! In my purse!" I hear Carley scream. Turning to the sound of her voice, I realized that Carley was being grabbed by a walker on the ground by her foot, a foot away from her purse, desperately trying to grab it. I turned to my right to see Doug being yanked by the walkers from outside, in front of the boarded up window, attempting to get out of their grasp.

Who to help? The really nice, nerdy guy who's technical skills could actually help out, or the girl who practically took care of me ever since the motel and reminds me of...

Without any second thoughts, I started sprinting towards Carley.

* * *

Much to my surprise, as soon as I got close to the aisle Carley was in, Lee already has toss her the ammo. Catching the ammo, she stuffs it into her gun and unloads two bullets by shooting the walker grabbing her ankle on the top of its head with one and shot an approaching walker square in the mouth with the other. Witnessing this action, I turned my head to see Doug getting uprooted by the other walkers and immediately rushed over to his side. Almost out of the window, I desperately tried a last attempt in saving him, when I was close, I launched myself and only caught onto his right-leg.

"Lee! Carley! Help!" I shouted as the both of them start running towards me, but it was too late. The odds of a teenage girl beating two or three full-grown walkers in a life or death tug a war match is unlikely, most likely I'm going to lose, and that's what just happened.

"Ah, no! GET 'EM OFF ME! AHHHHHHHH!" Doug shouted his last words to the world in surprise, Clementine screams, "AHHHH!"

With one powerful yank, Doug's tan-white leg slid right through my two hands, leaving me only with his sandal, causing me to fall backwards onto the floor as he was pulled through the boards and out the window, onto the grey concrete, where the group of walkers chomp down onto and through their latest victim.

Still taking in the apparent and sudden death, I turn to see Carley in shock by placing a hand on her mouth and saying, "Oh my god..." as she finds her previous straight posture and fire off a couple of rounds into distance into approaching walkers. Quickly after, Kenny bursts into the room and gives the 'go' signal, "Let's go!"

Abandoning her purse, Carley takes off towards Kenny and the open door while repeating, "They got Doug...They...they..."

I quickly jumped to my feet and started following Carley in pursuit but stopped as soon as I heard a blood curling scream from behind, on my heels, I turn to see Clementine getting grabbed by a walker on the ground.

Who knew Lee was so quick? By the time I shouted, "I'm coming Clem!" Lee was already squashing the walker's head like it was a bug! Placing my empty weapon back into my sheath, I started sprinting like a marathon runner towards the distressed Clementine. When I got close enough, I gripped onto Clementine's arms and started pulling her towards me, trying to loosen its grasp. With one more blow to the skull, the walker finally lets go of Clementine as she scooted backwards to me. In the clearance, she gets up as I quick jogged towards her and scooped her up with my arms. Clutching onto my neck with her head resting on my left-shoulder, I made a short sprint towards the opened back-door which happened to be held by Larry.

As soon as I reached Larry, he immediately places a hand on the doorframe, blocking me from escaping.

"MOVE IT LARRY! Now isn't the time for this!" I said, irritated while attempting to budge through him.

Larry didn't budge at all, and instead replied, "Haven't you heard the saying, If you don't have the time, then you shouldn't have done the crime?"

"Really? Cause last time I checked, it was a crime to abuse dinosaurs back in your days!" I answered before stomping on his foot, causing him to grunt and release his grip from blocking me, checking his foot in case I managed to break it. Well, I hope it did! Given the opportunity, I charged past him and into the backroom. Running through the doorway leading to the back-ally, I see two cars waiting by the store, Glenn's pizza-delivery car along with a red truck, which I'm guessing is Kenny's.

I looked at Kenny's truck to see his family and him in the truck with Carley sitting in the trunk. In Glenn's car, Glenn's is in the driver's seat, while Lily is sitting in the back-row and taking a wild guess here, but I'm pretty sure Larry would go with Lily. Without any doubt, I went over to Kenny's truck and lifted Clementine onto the trunk of his truck. With Clementine sitting on the opposite side of Carley, I lifted my leg onto the opening of the trunk and hopped into the trunk with the other.

Then, I noticed Kenny getting out of his truck and head back into the drugstore.

As soon as Kenny went back inside, Larry came out...with no Lee.

Larry goes to Glenn's car and opens the car's door and stepped inside, taking a seat next to Lily in the back. Well, I feel horrible for leaving Glenn to fend for himself against the two of them. A few moments later, I see Kenny and Lee; who's still alive, exit the back-door and run towards the truck. Lee quickly slides himself onto the trunk, next to Clementine and pulled the trunk's door up, closing it.

With the truck already on, Kenny immediately hops into the driver's side, closes the truck's door and the truck starts moving, making the Everett's Drugstore smaller and smaller from distance.

With the drugstore out of sight, I hear Lee quietly sigh in front of me.

* * *

The ride to who knows where had silence fill the atmosphere, that was, until Clementine decided to break it by slightly tugging on Lee's sleeve, "Lee, where are we going?"

He answered what anyone else would've said, "Honestly, I don't know Clem."

As if my burnt out light bulb was lit again, I started knocking on the glass that was separating us from Kenny and his family. Katjaa turns around and slides the little window to the left, opening it fully.

"Hey, do you guys know where exactly we're heading to?" I questioned.

"Well, I'll be damned if we managed to find somewhere safe by the time this truck runs out." Kenny answered.

Remembering my thought, I cockily said, "Well, lucky for you, I may know a place that's safe enough for us."


	4. Triggering The Past

**Hey guys!**

**Er, nothing else to say! Except, I decided to change some chapter titles, since I was thinking of doing five chapters per episode and two or three chapters between each episode, ex: episode 1 would have 5, while episode 1.5 would have 3. **

**Anywho, thanks for the favorites, follows, and review! **

**Here's Chapter Four, so I hope you guys enjoy it, even though it's kinda a filler chapter with another flashback of Kona's past, but it has a cliffy at the end!**

* * *

_**Previously on Fire Starter: **_

_The ride to who knows where had silence fill the atmosphere, that was, until Clementine decided to break it by slightly tugging on Lee's sleeve, "Lee, where are we going?"_

_He answered what anyone else would've said, "Honestly, I don't know Clem."_

_As if my burnt out light bulb was lit again, I started knocking on the glass that was separating us from Kenny and his family. Katjaa turns around and slides the little window to the left, opening it fully._

_"Hey, do you guys know where exactly we're heading to?" I questioned._

_"Well, I'll be damned if we managed to find somewhere safe by the time this truck runs out." Kenny answered._

_Remembering my thought, I cockily said, "Well, lucky for you, I may know a place that's safe enough for us."_

* * *

**_Episode One: A New Day_**

**_Chapter Four: Triggering The Past_**

**Kona's POV: At The Travelier Motel**

Have you ever have the feeling that disaster just seems to follow you wherever you go? No matter how far you run or where you go, disaster seems to follow and happen in the most surprising way. People always say that life is unfair, but to me, life just sucks. Comparing the present to my past, my past wins by a nub. I feel like life is playing games with me by placing me in these situations where there's never a positive outcome. Maybe, just maybe, I'm actually a ticking-time bomb awaiting to blow with reality being the lighter. It doesn't help when the Drugstore situation pops into mind, it adds to my already long guilt-list to terrorize me in my dreams. God, I don't even think it's normal for someone to not have dreams, instead they would have flashbacks of bad memories in the past. It's already bad enough that I could barely get any sleep in the beginning of all of this, now I can't even define sleep.

I pull my knees off the balcony's ledge and towards myself, burying my head and hugging them. I know it was just twenty minutes ago, but the same question flashes through my mind.

_Could Doug have survived?_

Maybe I could have grab something on the floor near me to throw at the grabby things and have them release him. Maybe I should've went for him first, since he was closest to me. Every moment similar to that just happens so fast, one thing lead to another and the next thing I know, I'm sitting on the floor, in shock, with only a sandal in my hand.

God, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't hurt or leave anyone, but not only to me, I've made that promise to Kelsey too, ever since the incident.

"Hey."

I lift my head off my knees to turn my head a bit to the left and glance up for my eyes to meet a pair of golden eyes.

"Oh, hey Clem." I say with a small-smile.

"Mind if I sit?" she asks.

"Not at all." I answer as I shake my head and pat the spot next to me. She walks up next to me and takes the spot on the left-side, as she crisscrosses her legs, I release my legs from my previous position and allow them to dangle from the balcony.

"So, back at the Drugstore...Are you okay?" I question, remembering what she experienced back at the Drugstore.

"Yeah, it's just that, I got grabbed again. But, you and Lee were there to stop _it_." she says with grateful eyes.

"Right. And, you know that we would do it again in a heartbeat."

"Promise?" she asks as she looks directly into my eyes.

"I even pinky promise it." I said before hooking my right-pinky with hers. She stands up while dusting off the bottom part of her yellow-sundress and says, "I should go, Duck might notice that I was gone."

With a quick nod in response, Clementine goes back down the stairway and over to Duck, who's still rambling on. Swinging my legs back-and-forth in the air, I start to take in what everybody is doing down in the parking lot. Lee is going around checking on everyone, with Larry glaring at him at every step, Lily is dragging and tossing the _for-sure _dead onto the blazing fire, Carley is rummaging through a box, probably just unpacking, Kenny and his family are unloading from his truck, while Glenn is just chilling by his car.

As soon as Glenn and Lee was done talking, Glenn starts to get in his car, wait what?

Ignoring the dried-up _liquid _surrounding me, I place my hand on the concrete to boost myself to my feet. I take a glance behind me as history was made in this very spot, yup, I was sitting on the balcony where Carley, Glenn, Lee, and I were fighting over Carley's gun with the suicidal-girl, when it broke. Shaking my head away from anymore flashbacks, I start walking towards the nearest stairway and went down to the lot.

I jog over to where Glenn's pizza-delivery car was and knock onto the driver's window.

Glenn rolls down his window all the way and looks at me, "Oh, hey Kona."

"You're leaving, aren't you?"

Glenn sighs, "I have friends down in Atlanta, I'm going to see if I could-" I cut him off, "I understand. Heck, if I knew where Kelsey is, I wouldn't even be in this group. Just, be careful okay?"

He reaches out to scuffle my hair a bit, "Alright Ko, I'll be careful, just for you. And also, I KNOW that you're going to find her or she's going to find you, you just have to be patient."

Glenn is really the_ only_ person in the group who I trust the most to tell my true motive to. Really, I'm just with this group until Kelsey comes back from; I think she said a farm, or somehow I mange to run into her. I don't know what this group is planning on doing for the rest of the apocalypse, but as soon as I see Kels again, we're taking our chances with finding a boat or even a plane somewhere near the coast to fly back to Hawaii, and pretend that this was just a terrifying nightmare.

The sound of Glenn starting up his car again, stumbles me back into reality.

He rolls his window back up and looks at me before tipping his hat, afterwards from the small-smile and wave I give him, he steps on the gas-petal and drives away from sight.

That reminds me, a certain reporter has some questions to answer.

* * *

Passing Kenny and his wife unloading the boxes from the truck, and Duck literally talking Clementine to death, I finally got close enough to Carley to see her unpacking technical equipment, "Hey Lee, I thought I said to lea-Oh, it's just you."

She puts something on the table to glance up at me, "Uh, yeah do I look like Handy-Man Lee to you?"

"No..."

"Yeah, look back at the drugstore..." I mange to start before she cuts me off, "Can we not talk about that?"

"You do _know _that we can't ignore what just happened twenty minutes ago, right?"

"It's just that..." she starts but I finish for her, "...you liked Doug, and not in the friendly way."

"Was it _that _obvious?" she admits, proving my point.

"I don't know, the whole 'I have to tell you something before we all die' thing may have gave a _little _bit of it away."

She just shrugs, "Well, he _was _cute...in a living in your parents' basement kinda way."

"Right...cause guys wearing socks with sandals is _so _attractive." I sarcastically say while dragging out the 'I', causing Carley to give me an 'Oh, really', look along with those risen eyebrows of hers as I continue, "Well, um, I'll go unpack my backpack then." I awkwardly say before turning on my heels towards the stairway, when I feel Carley's grasp on my wrist.

As soon as she grabbed my wrist, it suddenly triggered a memory that I thought was lost-forgotten, I instantly widen my eyes and recoiled my right-arm away, "DON'T TOUCH ME!"

* * *

**No POV: **

"DON'T TOUCH ME! _Please._" Kona softly pleads, so only surprising, Carley would hear. Startled by the younger-girl's sudden outburst, Carley looks into her eyes for any glint of playfulness, but instead she noticed something she never seen in the girl's eyes before..._fear._

Recalling the past, the reporter never saw fear on the teenager's face when the drugstore was attacked, but instead, it was determination. Even when her former crush was devoured in front of their very eyes, she didn't show fear, instead she showed regret. The look of fear on the island-girl was new to her, even if she didn't know her that long. With her reporter's instincts going off, Carley knows something traumatic must've happened in order to set her trigger off.

Not wanting to scare the girl anymore, Carley releases her grip on her wrist, allowing the young-islander to scurry up the stairs.

The reporter knows that Kona and her need to talk about what just happened, from her experience of being a reporter, she may have a clue, but won't ask till the girl is ready to talk.

* * *

Quickly twisting the golden-doorknob with her shaky hand, Kona opens the door and almost slams it shut, as soon as she step inside her room. Not in the mood for anyone's company at the moment, with her vision blurry from the forming tears, Kona turns the metal lock of the door. Starting to succumb to the haunting memory, the youngling makes her way to her bed. As soon as she gets on top of the mattress, she crawls till she's near the manila-colored wall.

Leaning against the wall, she pulls her knees to her chest, with the memory defeating her, she feels the steaming-hot tears run down her face.

_"FOR GOD SAKES MICHAEL! He had a wife and two daughters, who were watching! I-I just couldn't pull the trigger." I defended myself for the failed mission._

_He strokes his chin with his index-finger and thumb, "I have to say Kona, I'm actually quite disappointed in you, thought at of all the people, you would go through with it."_

She remembered why Michael sent the attack on the guy, something about not paying a monthly-debt.

_"But this time was DIFFERENT! He ACTUALLY had a family to care for, unlike the others! You just don't separate family Michael!" I argue._

Kona, still unleashing fresh tears, recalls the night when she had to perform the mission in her head. She just couldn't pull the trigger, especially after seeing the looks of the man's wife and little girls.

_He slams his fists on the table, "Doesn't mean shit to me! As long as they pay their debt, I don't care! And Kona, you goddamn know what happens when someone fails a mission!" his face calms down a bit, "You know what, actually, we have surprise for you." _

_Before I even got to say anything, I felt a sharp pain in the back of the head, and everything went black._

Breathing every now and then, Kona places both hands on her ears as she viciously shakes her head, attempting to rid the horrific memory, as her tears continues to fall at an even faster pace, only to know that it's impossible to rid the past.

_Fluttering open, my eyes quickly adjusted to the brightness of the lights, it didn't take me long to recognize where I'm at. By the look of the dim wall lights, I was definitely in the basement. I tried standing up from the rusty-metal yard chair, only to realize that I was being held down by the pressure points on my shoulders by Bruce and Rocky, Michael's muscles. _

_Suddenly, I hear slow claps coming from the darkness, narrowing my eyes, Michael steps into the light. _

_"Well, well, look who's up." Michael announces and continues, "You're in for quite a treat my girl." _

_Oh no, usually when Michael says something about a treat, it's either bad or just worse. Not even given the chance to speak, my attention turns to a body thrown in front of my feet, "This shit of a cop was playing undercover until her mic decided to break. Now, we don't like sneaking around here, now do we?" Michael announces as he points at the cop's body._

_I examined the body, still alive, a tan-potato sack covering her face, her arms tied with rope behind her back while wearing dark-blue jeans along with her brown-locks resting on her white T-shirt, and judging by only the sound of grunts, her mouth must be taped. _

_"What does this have to do with me?" I ask, confusedly. Seriously, what does this cop have to do with me? I'm not going to kill her, am I? _

_With a cruel-smirk planted on his face, he leans by my ear and whispers, "Everything." _

_"You see Kona, there's people who obey their commands, such as this cop, while there's people who rebel, such as you. I don't know if your parents taught you this, but people who rebel, get punished." Michael says, while I'm still lost. _

_"Still puzzled? Well, maybe this might help you put two and two together." he says before reaching for the sack. _

_When his hand touches the corner of the sack, he yanks it off the victim's head, revealing two light-brown eyes I knew too well. Her eyes were reading all sorts of emotions towards the sight of me, confusion, sadness, and the one that strikes me the hardest...fear. _

_No, this isn't happening._

_It just can't._

* * *

**Kona's POV: **

I-I couldn't continue the flashback, all I can say is that, ever since the incident, the innocence of the most innocent person I knew...was gone. After the tears turn off like a facet, I rested my head onto my knees, staring straight into the beige wall-paper. Stay focus Ko, don't stay in the past when you're living in the present, what's been done...been done, there isn't anything you could do now. Ugh, I just wish that I could go back in time to tell stupid, younger me to never have accepted that deal. I hop off my bed to head over toward the mini refrigerator; that I mange to snatch from the employee's lounge, and open it, revealing _some _of my food stockpile.

Reaching inside, I grab the Dill Pickle that was still in it's package, and tear off the plastic sealing.

I squeeze the pickle so it's top is out of the package and take a bite out of it. Usually, people would use ice-cream as comfort food, but I go with pickles. They're sour, like my past and juicy, like my secrets, if someone got a hold of them. Chewing on my bit of pickle, I sat on the corner of the motel's bed, wondering to myself.

_What just happened ten minutes ago? _

Most importantly..._Why? _

How exactly am I suppose to explain to Carley why I suddenly freaked-out and put my walls up? I can't tell anyone, I mean, do you know how much drama it's going to cause? It'll be high-school all over again. First, I need to earn these people's trust, then tell whoever I trust the most, whenever it's just right.

**_Ring, Ring, Ring_**

My head shoots up as I hear the sound of ringing, as in phone-ringing? I stare directly at my phone on top of the wooden-table. When I get off the bed to walk towards it, I notice it not lighting up as it usually does, besides, I think my phone was dead anyways.

If that wasn't _my_ phone then...

**_Ring, Ring, Ring_**

I turn around to face the night-stand next to the bed, with the black-phone resting on it, going off.

With loads of questions going through my mind, I anxiously start step by step, slowly, walk towards it. How is it possible that someone is calling me? How did they get the number to my room? And, most importantly, _who's _calling me? As I was inches away from the device, I shakily reach out my hand until it makes contact.

I pick up the phone and hold it against my ear, answering it, "Hello?"

"Kona, is that you?" the person asks. That voice, it sounds so familiar! My mind is literally flipping through the contacts list to try to match the voice to someone I knew. It sounds quite familiar, someone that I haven't seen or heard from awhile.

Suddenly, my light-bulb lit up, holy crap, I never thought I would hear from them again!

After my jittery-nerves calm down, I finally answered, "Kelsey?"

* * *

**And, that ends Chapter Four of Fire Starter! **

*** Next chapter is going to be the last for episode one! **

*** Even though it seems like it's taking awhile to update, I have this story planned out till the end! Though, there's some MAJOR parts I haven't decided on yet that would effect the story some time in the future. **

*** Also, I'm changing Kona's age from 14 to 15, since with past being a "Bit" dark, I figured her age needs to seem appropriate for that scenario. I will throw in bits of flashbacks in future chapters up until a certain chapter where she tells all! **

*** Just for fun, review your predications of what Kona's past was and what do you think happened during this chapter's flashback! **

**Make sure to leave a review, favorite, and follow if you enjoy this story! Peace!~Yummy42**


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